Linksys WRT54GS-FR User's Manual - Page 51

Instant Wireless® Series Auto-negotiate - To automatically determine the correct settings. The term is often used with communications and networking. For example, Ethernet 10/100 cards, hubs, and switches can determine the highest speed of the node they are connected to and adjust their transmission rate accordingly. Backbone - The part of a network that connects most of the systems and networks together and handles the most data. Bandwidth - The transmission capacity of a given facility, in terms of how much data the facility can transmit in a fixed amount of time; expressed in bits per second (bps). Beacon Interval - A beacon is a packet broadcast by the Access Point to keep the network synchronized. A beacon includes the wireless LAN service area, the AP address, the Broadcast destination addresses, a time stamp, Delivery Traffic Indicator Maps, and the Traffic Indicator Message (TIM). Bit - A binary digit. The value-0 or 1-used in the binary numbering system. Also, the smallest form of data. Boot - To cause the computer to start executing instructions. Personal computers contain built-in instructions in a ROM chip that are automatically executed on startup. These instructions search for the operating system, load it, and pass control to it. Bottleneck - A traffic slowdown that results when too many network nodes try to access a single node, often a server node, at once. Bridge - A device that interconnects different networks together. Broadband - A data-transmission scheme in which multiple signals share the bandwidth of a medium. This allows the transmission of voice, data, and video signals over a single medium. Cable television uses broadband techniques to deliver dozens of channels over one cable. Browser - A browser is an application program that provides a way to look at and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web or PC. The word "browser" seems to have originated prior to the Web as a generic term for user interfaces that let you browse text files online. Buffer - A buffer is a shared or assigned memory area used by hardware devices or program processes that operate at different speeds or with different 94 Wireless-G Broadband Router sets of priorities. The buffer allows each device or process to operate without being held up by the other. In order for a buffer to be effective, the size of the buffer and the algorithms for moving data into and out of the buffer need to be considered by the buffer designer. Like a cache, a buffer is a "midpoint holding place" but exists not so much to accelerate the speed of an activity as to support the coordination of separate activities. Cable Modem - A device that connects a computer to the cable television network, which in turn connects to the Internet. Once connected, cable modem users have a continuous connection to the Internet. Cable modems feature asymmetric transfer rates: around 36 Mbps downstream (from the Internet to the computer), and from 200 Kbps to 2 Mbps upstream (from the computer to the Internet). CAT 5 - ANSI/EIA (American National Standards Institute/Electronic Industries Association) Standard 568 is one of several standards that specify "categories" (the singular is commonly referred to as "CAT") of twisted pair cabling systems (wires, junctions, and connectors) in terms of the data rates that they can sustain. CAT 5 cable has a maximum throughput of 100 Mbps and is usually utilized for 100BaseTX networks. CPU (Central Processing Unit) - The computing part of the computer. Also called the "processor," it is made up of the control unit and ALU. CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection) - The LAN access method used in Ethernet. When a device wants to gain access to the network, it checks to see if the network is quiet (senses the carrier). If it is not, it waits a random amount of time before retrying. If the network is quiet and two devices access the line at exactly the same time, their signals collide. When the collision is detected, they both back off and each waits a random amount of time before retrying. CTS (Clear To Send) - An RS-232 signal sent from the receiving station to the transmitting station that indicates it is ready to accept data. Database - A database is a collection of data that is organized so that its contents can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. Data Packet - One frame in a packet-switched message. Most data communications is based on dividing the transmitted message into packets. For example, an Ethernet packet can be from 64 to 1518 bytes in length. Default Gateway - The routing device used to forward all traffic that is not addressed to a station within the local subnet. 95